Sziget Festival Sets New Record With over 410,000 Visitors – Photo Gallery

Budapest, August 18 (MTI) – The week-long Sziget Festival in northern Budapest’s Obuda Island attracted record many visitors this year and even though final figures are not yet available, they are estimated to be between 410,000 and 420,000, main organiser Karoly Gerendai said late on Sunday.

The previous weekly record was 390,000, set in 2009, he added. The all-time daily record of 85,000 people was set on Thursday this week when the event was sold out, Gerendai said.

He said he expected this year’s Sziget to be in the black despite a 300 million forint increase in expenses. Gerendai said it proved to be a good decision to postpone the Sziget by one week compared to previous years and the plan for next year is to again hold it in mid-August. This will change only if other European festivals also change their usual dates, he added.

More than 80 percent of the weekly passes were sold in Western Europe but the number of Hungarians was nearly 50 percent among day-ticket holders this year, Gerendai said.

“More Hungarians visited the Sziget this year than last year, which had not happened for a long time,” Gerendai said.